Stage

Ten new plays produced by Latino theater companies from around the United States will have their world premieres in downtown Los Angeles in 2014, in the inaugural installment of a National Latino Theater Festival and Conference that's envisioned as a biennial event. The festival, still in its planning stages, came to light Tuesday when the National Endowment for the Arts announced a round of grants that includes $50,000 to the L.A.-based Latino Theater Company, which will host the gathering at the Los Angeles Theatre Center.

The start of the Tour de France final stage was delayed by 15 minutes on Sunday in a row over Lance Armstrong's jersey. On the last day of his final Tour, the American had hoped he and his RadioShack team mates would be able to wear special black jerseys marked with number 28. That is a reference to the 28 million people Armstrong's Livestrong foundation estimates are living with cancer. A cancer survivor himself, Armstrong has been promoting the Livestrong foundation on the Tour but his final attempt was denied by the International Cycling Union (UCI)

"Queen of Angels: A tragical comedy or comical tragedy, full of intrigue and plenty of dancing. Angry Scenes! Deceptions! Songs! and Arousals of Love! Demons that fly across the stage with a chorus of naked queers!" That's the full title of James Carroll Pickett's new play, with music by Jon Cohen, at Highways. It certainly delivers all the excesses that its subtitle promises.

Reporting from Modesto -- Francesco Chicchi needs his Italian translated into English, but his bike language says Chicchi likes racing in the United States. The 29-year-old, who races for Liquigas-Doimo, beat out Juan Jose Haedo of Saxo Bank and sprint star Mark Cavendish of HTC-Columbia at the finish line to win Stage 4 of the Amgen Tour of California on Wednesday. Chicchi won the 121.5-mile stage in a time of 4 hours 55 minutes 2 seconds. There was no change in the overall standings, with Garmin-Transitions rider Dave Zabriskie keeping his four-second lead over Michael Rogers of HTC-Columbia and his six-second advantage over three-time defending champion Levi Leipheimer of Team RadioShack.

We believe that readers should be reminded of Marlene Gordon's The Next Stage. Having been on several of her tours we continue to be entertained by her originality, warmth and attention to detail. She always has several surprises awaiting her travelers and each and every excursion is a joy. For more information, write to The Next Stage, P.O. Box 35269, Los Angeles 90035. NAN WILLIAMS and PEGGY SMITH Los Angeles

To be the male producer of a Tony-winning play or musical is to wear a penguin suit to a cattle call, as the dozens of folks who typically finance a show gather onstage while only the very top dogs wave the medallion and kvell into the microphone. Variety reports that after eight years in the herd -- including stage-visiting rights at Radio City Music Hall during last Sunday's Tonys as a minority producer of "August: Osage County" and "Boeing-Boeing," winners for best play and play revival -- Harvey Weinstein and the Weinstein Co. aim to move up in the Broadway pecking order.

As an amateur composer, I concur with Chris Pasles' observations in "Not Taking It Sitting Down" (Jan. 9), but wish he took the discussion further. Perhaps the accompanist in many cases is treated as "second class" because the piano part is such. If accompanists do not want to be sidelined, then perhaps they should enter into agreements where for part of the program they perform solo! It doesn't have to detract from the singer or instrumentalist. Imre Sutton Fullerton

Few films conjure up the nightmarish movie memories that"The Exorcist"does. William Friedkin's 1973 adaptation of William Peter Blatty's bestselling novel famously spurred reports of screaming, fainting and even moviegoers running from theaters as 12-year-old Regan MacNeil, possessed by an ancient, powerful evil, spat out obscenities and ugly rivers of dark green bile. Religious leaders condemned the movie as sacrilegious; some cautioned that watching the film and its head-spinning imagery would endanger the soul.

BOURG LES VALENCE, France — Sprinter Mark Cavendish's 13th Tour de France stage victory of his career on Thursday was not his luckiest as teammate Mark Renshaw was disqualified over a head-butting incident. HTC-Columbia rider Renshaw led in the final stretch when New Zealand's Julian Dean, working for sprinter Tyler Farrar, tried to block his way. Renshaw head-butted the Garmin Transitions rider twice to keep him out of the way of Cavendish, who surged to his third stage win of this Tour.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: If you want to be a stage actress, you go to New York, and if you're over 30, you're out of luck. Yet somehow Anne Gee Byrd, 74, keeps showing up on L.A. stages. "I've been on a roll," she admits, sitting in the green room at the Colony Theatre, where in a few hours she'll perform as Mary in Evan Smith's "The Savannah Disputation," directed by Cameron Watson. Watson also directed Byrd last year in "I Never Sang for My Father" at New American Theatre and "All My Sons" at Matrix Theatre Company.